One Eye for Knowledge
by roterritter
Summary: In a final battle with the Akatsuki, Sakura loses an eye and one of her special people is killed while another is forced to leave Konoha. With a special gift from Kakashi, she is determined to find and heal him, then return with everyone she cares for.
1. Kakashi's Gift

**One Eye for Knowledge**

By: roterritter

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto the series or its characters.

Genre: Drama

Rating: T

Summary: Three years after a possible ending to Part II, Sakura is still dealing with the aftermath of the final battle. Despite losing an eye, she is determine to heal the damage to her special person with the help from a gift from Kakashi.

Timeline: This takes place three years after Part II. Sakura is 18.

A/N: It has been a while since I've posted a story, so I'm trying to break my crippling writer's block with this little story instead of trying to tackle where I left off in one my other stories. If this stops my writer's block, I'll finish off my smaller stories, then return to Snakes and Foxes, and maybe come up with something new.

* * *

**Chapter One - Kakashi's Gift**

Ramen for breakfast, ramen for lunch, and ramen for dinner.

It was strange how they picked up the bad habits of those who were special to them, as if to honor them after they were gone. It was also strange how they ended up enjoying it, even when they hadn't before. Then again, it wasn't as if their lives were normal…

Sakura carried two steaming bowls of ramen over to their table and set them down, forcing her quiet companion to reluctantly put down his copy of Icha Icha Paradise. The old book was showing its age, despite the careful care of its reader, as he set it away from any accidental spills.

"Ramen again? You of all people should know this can't be healthy."

She tried to ignore the comment as she sat down, but as a medical-nin of her caliber, it was hard to keep several bits of knowledge over the unhealthiness of just eating ramen from entering her head. It was no wonder Naruto was such a runt several years ago, after eating ramen non stop, and she wondered what healthy foods Jiraiya-sama must have forced him to eat for him to grow as tall as he did.

Before beginning to eat, she brushed a few errant strands of pink hair away, except for a veil of long bangs covering her left eye. She ignored her companion's subtle look, as he tried to catch a glimpse of what she hid.

Her companion put his hands together and said "I humbly receive" before reaching for his chopsticks. Despite his early complaint, he ate the ramen without argument. Whether he liked it or not, or was just eating it out of respect, she didn't know.

Sakura picked up her own chopstick and started eating, but they were both silent while her mind traveled to thoughts about their mission and memories of those who were gone: the one who died and the one who went away.

* * *

_Three years ago, when she woke up on a hospital bed safe in Konoha, she was completely unaware of the changes that would affect her and her teammates, both old and new, forever. All she was aware of, was that behind the bandages wrapped around her head, there was a splitting pain in her eye as if someone had thrusted a kunai into it. _

_Unfortunately, what the pain felt like wasn't far from the truth. _

_Sakura's heart ached when she remembered what ruined her eye beyond repair, even beyond the skills of Tsunade-shishou. The intricate collection of nerves and a complex lens was badly damaged, at best the medical-nin could reconstruct a sightless eye. _

_She wanted to cry with her remaining eye, but she didn't bother to get up from the bed or even look around the hospital room. Not even a window overlooking a sunny day in Konoha could bring her hope. _

_Even worse than the loss of her eye was the feeling that despite her best efforts, Naruto was dead…_

_Before she could explore her memories of the battle, the hospital door opened. _

_"Thankfully no one else was killed. It is amazing given their opponents, but those kids are rather amazing themselves. Many of them should be Jounin. Luckily Shizune made sure none of their injuries were life threatening."_

_Sakura easily recognized the voice of Captain Yamato, but she didn't open her eyes yet. Instead, she pretended to be asleep, as she heard another set of footsteps approach her bed, but the other person didn't respond as Yamato-san continued to talk. _

_"I have a personal request as well. I would like to be assigned as the permanent leader of Team Kakashi. I realize after these latest events, it may be difficult to reassemble the team, but I feel it is the least I can do for him."_

_She wanted ask what about Kakashi-sensei, but she narrowly avoided it. She had no memory of the end of their attempt to rescue Naruto from the Akatsuki. All she remembered was they were too late for the extraction and she took out her anger and grief on a smug Deidara. The pretty, young man's last work of art took out Sakura's left eye. The most she could do was close the wound before she bled to death and the last she remembered was managing to crawl by Naruto's lifeless side and falling unconscious against him while the others finished their own battles…_

_A soft, feminine hand caressed her forehead and brushed away her hair in a motherly fashion. With the added scent of the other person's favorite perfume, it wasn't hard for Sakura to know who was by her side, but still she didn't open her eye. _

_"Sakura, stop pretending to be asleep," commanded the woman. Out of habit, Sakura quickly obeyed, but regretted it as the sunlight nearly blinded her uncovered eye. _

_"Tsunade-shishou," she whispered. _

_"That's better," smiled Tsunade. It was a warm smile, with a mixture of sadness and relief. Sakura thought Tsunade was handling it well, given Tsunade's soft spot for Naruto. _

_"I'm sorry," she managed. The apology was more for Naruto than the Hokage standing next to her. It was suppose to be so wonderful. Naruto was supposed to wake up to find everyone had come for him. The entire former Rookie Nine was there, them and their former teachers, so was Team Gai and even a few Jounin that Naruto barely knew like Shizune and Genma. Naruto was supposed to open his eyes and see everyone he had inspired. _

_But that never happened…_

_"Sakura-chan?"_

_Her blood chilled as if she heard a ghost speak her name. _

_Yamato stepped out of the way of the door to reveal someone standing behind him. Someone who was on his feet when last she saw him was lying on the ground lifeless. _

_"Naruto!" she yelled as she shot upright in bed. She didn't believe what her one eye was seeing, Uzumaki Naruto was alive! Yet, there was something different about him. It wasn't the borrowed t-shirt he wore or his sad look as he couldn't meet her eye. _

_Tsunade walked over behind him and quickly pushed Naruto over to the side of the bed with a small yell of protest. He still wouldn't look at her. She thought it was her ruined eye. Even with the bandages it must been unappealing to look at. It wasn't an uncommon injury for a ninja, but for a kunoichi, it would end her career of infiltration and spying. _

_"Naruto?" she said, but her voice quivered. She was so confused and she didn't just waking up from the fog of the aftermath of battle to make her more uncertain about her feelings over someone she cared for. How much, she still didn't know. _

_"Why did he do it?" Naruto's eyes were downcast and his voice was soft. _

_"W-What?"_

_"Why did he do it!" he yelled. His blue eyes opened wide and she saw panic and uncertainty there. She felt an immediate need to calm him, but she didn't know what had made him in this state to start with. "Why did he sacrifice himself for me?" _

_Sakura studied his face as he frowned and looked away. It was then she noticed what was different. The whisker-like lines on his cheeks were gone. In there place was unblemished smooth skin as if they had never been there to begin with. _

_She blinked in surprise, trying to digest this information. _

_Naruto's whole body shook with emotion and she couldn't take it anymore as she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him for the first time. She was careful to place her undamaged side of her head against his and held him tight. _

_"It's all right, whatever it is." She enjoyed the warmth as she felt his own arms wrap around her, but a part of her was unsure why she enjoyed being hugged back by someone she cared about for once. _

_"W-Whatever? You don't know?" he whimpered. _

_She didn't, her mind was too busy trying to wrap her brain around that Naruto was still alive when they were so uncertain he was dead. He had been dead like Gaara, a Jinchuuriki who had his Bijuu extracted died from it, but like Gaara, Naruto was alive again. She remembered when Chiyo-baasama used her reincarnation jutsu to bring Gaara back at the cost of her life. Sakura had watched it happen with Naruto and Kakashi with his Sharingan eye uncovered. Kakashi's Sharingan…_

_She gasped suddenly as she realized why Naruto was alive. _

_"Sakura," said Tsunade from behind Naruto. Her voice had a solemn tone, "There is something I have to tell you—" _

* * *

"We'll find him." 

Her companion's words shocked he out of her daydream of painful memories. She looked up and saw that he had finished his bowl of ramen. He rested his elbows on the table, intertwined his fingers, and watched her with brooding dark eyes.

"Sasuke-kun," she whispered.

Outwardly, he hadn't changed much except growing taller over the years. He was still pretty enough to make her heart flutter, but she was older and knew better. Now he wore all black top and pants with a fishnet undershirt that could be seen underneath his wide sleeves. His eyes were still dark, still keeping certain intensity even now that he wasn't obsessed with power or revenge anymore.

As if those words were all that needed to be said, Sasuke reached over and picked up the Icha Icha Paradise book again and started reading where he left off, while waiting for her to finish her own meal.

Sakura frowned, "It's not polite to read a perverted book like that in front of a lady!"

"It never stopped Kakashi-sensei," he replied, while his eyes never left the page and ignored her folding arms, clad in wide sleeves of a red kimono that she wore in place of her regular ninja attire. Despite her appearance, Sasuke wasn't going to expend more energy than required to continue and argument that had lasted three years.

"I don't know why he left you those in his will," she complained. "He should have left them to Naruto, he was the perverted one of us…and it was Jiraiya-sama who wrote them in the first place. I don't understand."

She gave up and started to eat her ramen before it got cold. Knowing Sasuke, he would continue to read each and everyone, over and over in a determined fashion until he discovered some hidden message that their deceased sensei had left. Yet knowing Kakashi, there was no hidden message, only an attempt to make Sasuke not take life so seriously.

In a way, Kakashi-sensei had all left them gifts so that they continue to live their lives to the most of their abilities and she was determined to make _him_ see that once and for all.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she studied Sasuke, wondering what other habits from Kakashi he had picked up. She had learned the most about Kakashi's childhood after his death, including that he had been an arrogant child genius whose personality changed after the death of his teammate, an Uchiha who had been more like Naruto than any Uchiha she knew.

Sasuke had yet to show up late, but Sakura had been tempted more than once despite tempting Tsunade's wrath.

After deciding she had more than enough, she put away her chopsticks and looked out the window to the sunny, busy street of a foreign city.

"It's been three years. Do you think he changed?" she asked thoughtfully.

"Do doubt," Sasuke muttered. "Everyone changes eventually, even you, but I imagine Naruto will still be an idiot."

Sakura smiled, knowing Sasuke didn't mean it as an insult. They both found Naruto's clueless nature endearing sometimes. Although leaving Konoha was not one of those moments.

* * *

_"DAMN IT!" Tsunade yelled in frustration as she slammed a report onto her desk. "It is my worse fear. Naruto can't mold chakra anymore because his inner coilsystem has literally almost been burned out by the extraction. The chakra pathways are so damaged his chakra can't properly flow through his body." _

_"But what about Gaara!" Sakura's mind raced to compare Naruto and Gaara's similar situation and the different results. "He can still mold chakra after Shukaku was extracted."_

_Tsunade sighed as she sat down on her office chair, watching her student's frantic eyes. "Shukaku's chakra wasn't mixing with Gaara's own chakra like Naruto's. Yondaime's seal worked different from the seal on Gaara and the fact of the matter is, it was the Nine Tails that was extracted from Naruto, not the One Tail. The damage was greater. It was also a resurrection jutsu, not a medical jutsu. Even a medical jutsu can't repair this kind of damage, none that I know of."_

_Sakura practically fell into the chair setting opposite of Tsunade's desk. She felt the adrenaline from the argument rush out of her, leaving her exhausted. "This isn't fair."_

_"No, it isn't, but he's alive. He has that much."_

_"H-He can study taijutsu. I'm sure Lee-san and Gai-sensei would be willing to help train him!" she argued. _

_Tsunade sighed. "That won't work either. Lee is a special case and uniquely skilled in taijutsu despite is lack of ability to mold chakra. Naruto could never reach Lee's ability."_

_"But he would still be a ninja."_

_"A ninja who has no hopes of ever becoming Hokage!"_

_Sakura gasped. Tsunade's words seemed cruel…they would be cruel for Naruto, who only desired to be recognized. Even being an ordinary ninja wouldn't be enough for him. The irony was many villagers who believed that with Kyuubi, Naruto should never become Hokage, would also not accept him after the extraction because he could no longer perform a single jutsu. _

_The Hokage continued softly, "It's better if I cut him off now, remove him from the ninja ranks and let him live the rest of his life as a civilian. He can't mold chakra, perhaps even the secrets of his techniques have been destroyed, so the Anbu and hunter-nin won't bother him. He could even leave Konoha if he wanted. Perhaps that is better."_

_"No, it won't be, not for him."_

* * *

"Are you sure the information is correct?" 

Sakura ran her hand through her bangs after stepping of the restaurant, "Tsunade-shishou said it came from Jiraiya-sama himself. He's been busy keeping tabs on Naruto."

Sasuke walked into the street while putting his book safely in his pouch, "Too busy to write a new book I'm afraid."

"If you think Kakashi-sensei hid a hidden message for you in his books then why are interested in a new one that he never read?" she asked him playfully and smiled as he avoided the question by walking away. She followed him, with the smile still on her face.

"I wish we had Kakashi-sensei's dogs, even Pakkun," she complained. "Snakes and slugs aren't very useful for tracking someone down. He could be anywhere in this city!"

Sasuke looked back and shook his head. "I told you, we don't need any of that. The ability to send chakra to the nose to increase the sensitivity of the sense of smell isn't a bloodline jutsu. I can use it to track Naruto."

"You copied it from an Inuzuka?" she asked in shock.

"Of course," he answered as he dug through his pockets and pulled out a forehead protector attached to a long black bandana. "All I need is this. I'll track by smell and you keep your _eyes_ open."

"Yeah right," she muttered as she brushed her bangs with her fingers again. She absolutely refused to tie her forehead protector on lopsided like Kakashi, instead she fussed with her hair constantly to make sure the left side of her face was still hidden.

They walked through the streets, Sasuke occasionally sniffed at Naruto's headband and leading the way, but Sakura had no idea if he actually smelled something or was just going in a random direction. They passed many booths and she wondered if Naruto had shopped there recently or in the past.

While walking behind Sasuke she thought back to how six years ago when her crush for Sasuke developed into love…a twelve year old's love, but love nonetheless. Then Sasuke left. She and Naruto spent three years of training so they could get him back.

Yet, while doing that she developed a crush on Naruto, which developed into…a fifteen year old's love, still more mature than before, but she was still just a girl. Yet, this time Naruto left. She and Sasuke spent years of training so they could bring _him_ back.

Sakura knew she could never get Naruto back without making a ninja again and he couldn't do that without his chakra system being healed, so she spent three years learning how to do that. Sasuke spent his time earning back the trust of the village so that he would actually be allowed to leave it to help her find Naruto.

Without bringing Naruto back, she would never be able to decide what to do with the love that she felt for both of her _boys_.

Sasuke suddenly stopped, causing her to bump into him while lost in her thoughts.

"What is it?" she asked while rubbing her nose where it met his shoulder.

"This way!" Sasuke took off in a burst of speed that she barely kept up with until he finally stopped at a tall building that looked like a warehouse, where he stood with his back close against the wall.

She copied him and listened while he waited. All she could hear was several angry muffled sounds of voices.

Sasuke motioned upward before he ran up the wall, attaching his feet to the building as if he was running up a tree. With his black outfit, he looked like a harmless shadow until he found an open window and slipped inside. Sakura followed, but she hadn't prepared her vision for the darkness inside despite the rays of sunlight from the windows.

They both managed to crawl along the beams near the ceiling and once they found a shadowy spot, Sakura could concentrate on the conversation below.

"SHUT UP! DAMN YOU!"

The loud mouth male voice was someone still recognizable despite the changes of growing up further in three years. It was enough to bring a huge smile to her face.

One of the unfamiliar voices echoed up from below, "What are you, an idiot? This doesn't involve you. The gambling debt of Kitamoto-san is the sole responsibility of him and his family. Not some penniless punk like you!"

Sakura looked down and quickly tried to find Naruto. It wasn't hard, he was the only spiky haired blonde in the warehouse, but even from her bird's eye view, she could see he was wearing a peasant outfit…which was bright orange of course.

"Geez your rude," Naruto said in an ignorant fashion as three large men surrounded him. He merely scratched his head as if it were no trouble.

"I'm about to get ruder, guys…teach this punk a lesson."

Sakura didn't wait for the attack to start. Whether Naruto could defend himself or not, she hadn't come this far to watch Naruto be beaten to a pulp. She quickly reached into the wide sleeves of her kimono to release her secret weapon…hundreds of sakura petals that fell slowly down from her sleeves to the ground like feathers.

"What is this?" yelled the leader of the thugs.

She quickly performed a few hand seals before muttering her jutsu's name, "Sakura Illusion: Confusion Jutsu."

The mere smell of her sakura petals was enough to pull the thugs into her genjutsu, much like other common genjutsu that used sound of a flute or motion of a finger. She quickly controlled the chakra in the thugs' nervous system to make them see what she wanted them to see.

Two of the thugs quickly turned on each other, their fists managed to strike each other at the same time in an almost comical effect. The third quickly turned on the leader, who wasn't nearly as tough as the thugs and passed out after one bone-breaking punch.

Sakura turned and smiled toward Sasuke, proud over her quick and effective illusion, but frowned in annoyance as he had watched the entire thing with his Sharingan activated.

"Genjutsu?" Naruto said to himself after he quickly figured out why the thugs were beating each other into bloody pulps. "HEY! I could have taken them on myself! I don't need anyone's help!"

"Of course not," said Sasuke coolly as he jumped off the beam and landed on a cement floor covered in sakura petals. The only thug still conscious stumbled toward him and Sasuke pointed his wide sleeves toward him, "Hidden Shadow Snake Hand Jutsu."

Four snakes, impossibly long, flew out from the inside of his wide sleeves and hit the thug square in the chest with enough force to send him flying across the warehouse. The snakes were pulled back into Sasuke's sleeve before the thug even hit the ground.

"Sasuke? You bastard!" Naruto looked at him with anger in his blue eyes. "That genjutsu was yours."

Sakura surprised him as she jumped down, alongside Sasuke, "No, it was mine."

"S-Sakura-chan?" stuttered Naruto.

She stared at him, but her emotions were in turmoil. She looked him over, partly to ensure that he was still healthy and hadn't withered away from an unhealthy diet of ramen. The other part was to see how he had grown.

Her eyes roamed from his feet to his face, she almost smiled as she realized he was still in shape as if he was still a ninja, but her eyes widened in horror as they reached his face.

"What have you done!" she screeched in sudden anger.

Sakura rushed forward and while Naruto tried to back away, she grabbed him by the collar while she caressed his cheek with her other hand. Three years ago the whisker-like lines on his cheeks disappeared after Kyuubi was extracted. When he left Konoha his cheeks were smooth and unblemished, but now he had three scars on each cheek, mimicking the lines he once had.

Despite the years apart and the changes between the two of them, being wary of Sakura's fury had become instinct to Naruto as he tried to stand still and hide his own personal shame.

"Did you do this?" she asked as she softly caressed a puckered scar with her fingers.

Naruto grabbed her right hand by the wrist and pulled it away, suddenly aware that it didn't make things better, as instead of her touching him softly, now he had his hands around her slender wrist where he could feel her heartbeat pulse underneath her soft skin.

Naruto silently gulped before answering, "Yeah, I missed the lines. My face didn't look right without them, so I used a kunai one day and cut them back on."

Sakura looked at his tortured expression with sympathetic eyes. "Naruto."

"Geez," Sasuke said, "More reason for you to come back with us, idiot."

"I'm not going back!" yelled Naruto.

"Yes…you will," Sakura said in a determined tone as she reached up with her left hand brushed away her hair to reveal her left eye.

"What the?" said Naruto in shock as he tried to pull away, but couldn't move his eyes off the red pupil of Sakura's left eye, marked with three tomoe, that started to turn like a wheel. "How did you—"

"Sleep," she ordered and the word was more than just a command as Naruto's body went limp. Sakura supported him and slowly knelt down with him, holding him against her. "Sleep and when you wake up, this nightmare will be over."

* * *

_"Don't blame Shizune," said Tsunade as she stood behind Sakura as the teenage girl examined her left eye in the hospital room mirror while in shock. "Kakashi ordered her to implant the Sharingan…I'm not sure what the man was thinking." _

_Sakura was barely listening as she touched her cheek underneath the eye. Shizune did well enough to remove any possible scars. It was hard to tell that Deidara's last explosive had ruined the side of her face. The only sign was a man's eye staring back at her. _

_"Why?" she asked, but wasn't really expecting an answer. _

_"I don't know," Tsunade sighed and crossed her arms. "Perhaps he didn't want you to be half-blind for the rest of your life or maybe he just didn't want a part of Obito to die. Either way, I'll make sure you're trained with it. No use for it be useless for you and we happen to have a Sharingan master locked up, we'll consider it part of his rehabilitation." _

_"Rehabilitation?"_

_"Of course, I'll make a good ninja out of Sasuke eventually," she said. She uncrossed her arms and smacked a fist into her palm. "Even if I have to beat everything Orochimaru ever taught him out of him."_

_Sakura giggled at Tsunade's idea of rehabilitation, but she returned her attention to the dark red eye. Part of it felt like a stranger's eye, she knew nothing about Obito except perhaps that Kakashi blamed himself for Obito's death and perhaps that Obito was his friend as well as a teammate. Obito was the bases for much of Kakashi's belief about helping his teammates. _

_"Who knows about this?" she asked. _

_"Everyone who was at the cave except for Naruto of course. He was out of it even after Kakashi used that jutsu," answered Tsunade. _

_"Don't tell him," she told her teacher as she started brushing her hair over her new eye. "Naruto is having a hard enough time about Kakashi's death. I don't want him to know about the eye until I'm ready. Okay?" _

_"Sure." _

_Sakura looked at her reflection and gave herself a sad smile. "I'm sure Kakashi-sensei felt that as long as he lived, a part of Obito-san lived on through his eye. So for me too, I feel a part of Kakashi-sensei still lives. His only original technique is with Sasuke-kun, his only friendship is with this eye that is now with me, and his life is with Naruto. I'll make sure we all live on and treat what Kakashi-sensei had given us with respect." _

* * *

With some effort, they managed to drag a still sleeping Naruto back to their inn. Sakura personally wanted to summon a horse-sized slug to take care of carrying Naruto, but Sasuke rejected the idea, as it would have brought too much attention. So instead, they managed to drag Naruto, heavy with compact muscle, to their room. 

"Perhaps you should have waited to use your Sharingan until we got here?" complained Sasuke as he fumbled with opening the door while supported Naruto.

"It's not like he would have come with us willingly," she argued. Sakura had forgotten when she and Sasuke had stopped calling her left eye "Kakashi's Sharingan" and started referring to it as her own. For three years in-between medical jutsu research she had studied underneath Sasuke to learn the same abilities that he had mastered the three years before.

Her biggest break through when Jiraiya-sama told her to stop trying to learn to use it as Kakashi would, but to use it in her own way with her own unique skills. She quickly found between her aptitude for genjutsu and her medical jutsu, she found her own way that was very successful.

"Put him on the bed," she told him and he glared at her as if it was obvious.

Naruto landed with a thump from a not so gentle Sasuke just letting him just drop despite Sakura's careful attempt to lower him down. However, once he was down she sighed with relief.

Now came the hard part.

Sakura loosened her forehead protector, swept her bangs back, and retied it so that none of her hair got in the way of her Sharingan. She then got out a long red cord and tied up her kimono sleeves so her arms were free.

Sasuke spoke up, "Are you sure about this? Not even Tsunade-sama could heal him."

"She hasn't spent three years training and researching for this," she argued. "She hasn't spent three years mastering this Sharingan so she could use it help heal her special person. I'm going to do this…it will happen. If I can heal Naruto, then I can live knowing I sacrificed my original eye for this knowledge."

"But I don't see how!" Sasuke was a master at the copying abilities of his Sharingan and knew full well of the damage that the Mangekyou Sharingan was capable of. He didn't understand how she could use it to help her heal. "It is his inner coil system that is damaged, if you had a Byakugan then you could see the chakra pathways and the pressure points, but the Sharingan can only show you the chakra flow."

"Exactly," she answered. "The chakra flow is all I need."

Sakura shoot out her hand with two fingers extended and struck Naruto's chest where a bit of blue chakra erupted out.

"What the—that wasn't a chakra scalpel," he said in confusion. "It was a Gentle Fist. Did you copy that from a Hyuuga?"

"Of course," she said, mimicking his earlier answer to her similar question.

"How? Hyuuga are secretive about even that jutsu."

"Hinata-chan let me copy it after I told her why I needed it for. She was also very helpful teaching me what the Hyuuga know about the inner coil system…most of their knowledge is used for their fighting style, but none of them thought about the medical application. I actually learned how to heal a chakra pathway. Something that's not even in Tsunade's books."

"Even so, you can't see the inner coil system. The Gentle Fist can decrease or even increase the chakra flow through the pressure points, but how can you do that without seeing them?"

Sakura calmly answered him with a professionalism that Sasuke hadn't seen before. "I can cut the nerve of his leg without seeing it. I can heal his heart without cutting open his chest. I won't have the accuracy of a Hyuuga, but my intent isn't to hit a pressure point, but to heal his chakra pathways. By combining the Gentle Fist with healing chakra I can effectively rewire the damaged parts of his chakra system until I see a normal chakra flow return."

"Sakura," he whispered as he watched her. He activated his own Sharingan to watch the delicate work. Sometimes she hit a chakra pathway, sometimes she didn't, but the Sharingan always showed her the chakra flow. When she could see that, she knew where to spread her green colored healing chakra with the soft touch of an open palm.

The process took hours, so long that even her perfect chakra control couldn't prevent the Sharingan from exhausting her, but she wouldn't give up and after several hours, he finally saw Naruto's chakra flow return to normal.

"Sakura, that's enough! You should rest now before you damage yourself," he warned her. He didn't know if she heard him or not as she drifted out of unconsciousness and fell toward the bed and practically onto Naruto.

He sighed with relief. Naruto was healed and Sakura could finally give up this obsession with healing him. As someone who knew about obsession, he knew that it was time for them to rest.

**Next Chapter - Sakura's Promise**

* * *

_Author's Note: This idea started when I started thinking about Kakashi's Sharingan eye might be inherited by someone else. Kakashi and Obito both have blood type O. The only one of his students with O is Sakura. The story grew from there from the characters' reactions. _

_In the first scene, I use one of several translations I found for Itadakimasu. It didn't seem right for "Japanese" characters to start eating without it, but I wanted it to be subtle for readers who don't like too many Japanese words in their fan fics. _

_In the last scene, it may have ended suddenly, but I felt it was more dramatic than to let it continue to a weaker resolution. _

* * *

Version 1.3 

1.0: Original

1.1: Fixed some grammer mistakes and added some more notes.

1.2: Changed a few notes to reflect that it is no longer a one-shot and will be continued.

1.3: Changed a few wordings to match the terms I've found on a few information sites. Nothing too seriously different, but I wanted to be accurate as I continue forward. For example: chakra system, is now the inner coil system, which is to chakra as blood vessels are to blood.


	2. Sakura's Promise

**One Eye for Knowledge**

A/N: I've decided to turn this into a full series so I can play around with some post-Part II ideas. It will remain a story through Sakura's point of view, but focus on all three of the main characters. Flashbacks will be used to explain any of the background of the last three years.

* * *

**Chapter Two – Sakura's Promise **

Sakura slept soundly on the inn room's bed, feeling more safe and warm than she ever had felt before. She felt a sense of accomplishment, as a hard goal that had followed her day and night had finally been completed. It was the most restful sleep she felt in six years, not even Sasuke's return to Konoha three years ago brought her this peace, as his return was overshadowed by Kakashi's death and Naruto's leaving.

And now Naruto would be returning.

She drifted out of her deep sleep, into a temporary state of half-sleep while she made herself more comfortable in between dreams. Her sleepy mind was blissfully ignorant of the warm body that she pressed her womanly curves against, until a little voice in her head started screaming at the unfamiliar feeling.

"AH!" Her mismatched eyes snapped open to see her lying against Naruto. The screaming part of her wanted to blame him for her own actions, but the rational part of her told her he was still laying flat where she and Sasuke had laid him earlier.

She blushed furiously and moved away from him, as far as she could without falling off the bed, despite her reluctance to move away from the safety and warmth she felt before.

"How did I get here?"

Sakura looked around the room, realizing it was well into the middle of the night and only slim beams of moonlight lit the dark room. The last thing she remembered was healing Naruto until her body surrendered to chakra exhaustion. Her perfect chakra control and medical techniques could only spare her for so long before she suffered from using the Sharingan just like Kakashi-sensei.

She looked around and found Sasuke sleeping on a futon on the floor. After she passed out, he must have left her on the bed with Naruto, but at the moment with her heart pounding, she wasn't sure if she preferred the bed or the futon.

Yet, in the end, she was just happy knowing it was a peaceful night and she was sharing the room with the two most important young men in her life.

* * *

_The dull ache in her left eye only seemed to reflect the pain she felt in her heart. She tried to rub her eye, only to be blocked by a white eye patch that covered it, a necessity to keep Naruto from noticing Kakashi's Sharingan underneath her short pink hair even though the need to hide its existence was quickly coming to an end. _

_Naruto's note hadn't left her hand since the moment she received it and now the sloppily written words were dotted with black splotches where her tears had landed on the ink characters, which gave new meaning to each dreaded word. _

_The note itself told her to meet him at the bench near the back entrance of Konoha, it was the same entrance that Sasuke had used to leave Konoha and it was the same bench that Sasuke had laid her on after her tearful begging for him to take her with him. _

_She knew begging wouldn't work this time either. _

_"Sakura-chan," said Naruto, but there was no cheerfulness in the -chan for once. She turned and looked at him. He wore his usual black and orange outfit with his long black forehead protector still tied around his forehead. The backpack strapped to his back made him look as if he were merely leaving Konoha on a mission, except for the tortured expression on his face with unbearable sadness in his blue eyes. _

_"N-Naruto," she whispered. _

_"Tsunade-baachan said there is nothing she can do. The extraction burnt up my inner coil system and she can't heal it. I can't mold chakra. I can't even use it to climb trees or walk on water anymore and I wouldn't even use be able to open the Celestial Gates like Fuzzy Eyebrows. How could anyone recognize such a useless ninja!"_

_"Naruto!"_

_Sakura couldn't bare it anymore. She leapt to her feet and wrapped her arms around Naruto and hugged him tight as if he would fall apart of she let him go. _

_"We'll find a way to heal you!" she told him. "Me and Tsunade-shishou, we'll work on it day and night until we find a way, just don't leave!"_

_"When? A month, a year, or maybe ten years? I can't stay here knowing everyone's advancing but me. I can't stay here seeing the villagers still looking at me like there's a demon still inside of me when I all feel is hollow inside!"_

_Sakura cried, for Naruto, for her unrevealed love, and for heart aching sympathy that she felt Naruto's feelings, and her tears left dark spots where they fell on his shoulders. _

_Then she noticed, Naruto hadn't cried at all. He hadn't cried over Kakashi's death. He hadn't cried over the freedom of no longer being tied to Kyuubi. He wasn't even crying now as his dream was being taken away. _

_She remembered Naruto's words to Inari long ago: "So it's better to pretend to be some sort of tragic hero and cry all the time…you seem like a real idiot crying all the time! You crybaby!" _

_Sakura stopped suddenly and pulled away from Naruto, eerily calm despite her sobs a moment ago. Her expression changed suddenly as she looked at Naruto, who watched her with concern for her sudden change in behavior. _

_"I'm sick of crying!" she told him as she whipped away the last of her tears. A sad smile was on her lips as she remembered every time Naruto inspired her to do better. "I'm not a tragic heroine. I'll be strong, like you…"_

_Naruto smiled sadly and nodded in response, understanding her feelings, "I think I'll miss you the most Sakura-chan." _

_"I'll…miss you too," she told him, but the words seemed weak in comparison to what she felt. It was so ironic that she fell in love with another boy, only to loose him again, leaving her by the very same bench. She could admit her feelings to him now, but she knew doing so now would only be an immature attempt to make him stay, the act of little girl who was inconsiderate of the feelings of the boy she loved. Naruto might stay if she told him, since he loved her once, but she knew he would never be truly happy surrounded by ninja who were reaching the potential that he could never achieve. _

_"Can you do something for me Sakura?" he asked as he reached up and unknotted the bandana of his forehead protector and pulled it off, setting a mess of blond hair free. He handed it too her and she quickly embraced it as if it had suddenly become something very precious to her. "Give that to Tsunade-baachan and this too…" _

_Naruto unzipped his jacket to reveal the necklace that hanged around his neck. Sakura's eyes threatened to tear up again as she watched him pull it off and hand it to her. _

_"This is the First's necklace. It belongs to the next Hokage…which isn't me anymore."_

_"N-Naruto." Sakura reluctantly took the necklace dangling from his hand. She knew the story behind the necklace, about how Naruto won it from her teacher on a bet she was sure she wouldn't lose. To Tsunade, it was more than who would be the next Hokage, it was a symbol of her love and faith that she had in the individual who wore it. _

_Sakura knew what she had to do. _

_"What are you doing!" he asked in as she put the necklace around her neck. "Don't tell me you've decided to become the next Hokage?"_

_Sakura almost giggled at the thought of the idea. _

_"No, I'm keeping it so I can safeguard your dream till you come back."_

"_But I won't be coming back," he argued. _

"_Yes, you will. I'm going find a way to heal you one day so you can be a ninja again and become Hokage," she told him. She smiled happily, each word sounding more right than the last. Sakura made the "nice guy" pose by making a thumb up. _

"_It's a promise of a lifetime!" _

* * *

Sakura kept her promise. 

It hadn't been an easy thing to do, to accomplish what even her teacher, a master of medical jutsu, hadn't been able to do, but Sakura spent three years training, researching, and working hard for her goal, which she had finally achieved.

Kakashi's Sharingan became unbelievably valuable in this case. While she read every medical book or scroll she could get her hands on, she used her Sharingan to copy every medical jutsu she could watch. The combination allowed her abilities to grow at an uncanny pace, but it wasn't until she found a forgotten page in a medical book that she found the key to healing Naruto…the Hyuuga clan.

Despite every book she read, there was precious little about the inner coil system. If it weren't for that little forgotten page, she wouldn't have learned that the Hyuuga censored all information regarding the inner coil system in Konoha. Their obsession to keep the inner workings of the Byakugan secret extended beyond the use of cursed seals. Out of fear, they hid even medical information, afraid that someone could duplicate or even discover a weakness in the Gentle Fist style.

That information brought her to Hinata, the only Hyuuga who would tell Sakura what she needed to know and to do that, she broke many clan laws by bringing the hidden books to Sakura and showing Hyuuga techniques in front of a Sharingan user. In return, Sakura owed a debt she didn't think she would ever be able to repay.

Yet, it was worth it, to finally heal Naruto and give him back his dreams.

With her eyes closed and still half-asleep, she slipped her hand underneath her kimono and found the First's necklace that she still kept around her neck. She knew she would feel awkward without it after wearing it for three years, but she still intended to give it back to Naruto when the time was right.

**_CRASH!_**

Sakura shoot up suddenly at the sound of something being smashed outside. She looked across the bed and noticed immediately that it was empty.

"Sasuke! Naruto's gone—"

However, Sasuke's futon was empty as well.

"Where are they?"

**_CRASH!_**

The last sound was slightly different from the last, but Sakura quickly put two and two together and figured out the source of the noise outside.

"Those bastards!" she yelled as she jumped out of bed and straightened out her kimono. Her sense of peace from earlier was already gone, "They can't help themselves, can they! Only one day together and they are already fighting! Naruto's only been healed for less than a day, he can't possibly compete against Sasuke-kun!"

She ran outside, it wasn't hard to find the source of the noise as the two had caused it was still fighting. In the back of the inn, where a bunch of boxes and barrels had been stacked around a square area, Naruto and Sasuke fought in their makeshift ring.

By the time she arrived, someone had flown into a box apparently filled with flour, as the substance went flying into the air like smoke.

"Naruto!" she yelled as she ran toward the broken boxes, but the figure covered in white flour wasn't Naruto. "Sasuke?"

Sakura turned around and saw Naruto, unharmed and in a taijutsu stance. His eyes were serious and locked on Sasuke.

Sasuke stood up while trying to dust off the white flour from his black outfit, but failing completely. He then whipped off a trail of blood from his chin, ignoring Sakura as he looked back to Naruto, but his voice was calm when he spoke, "That was the Leaf Strong Whirlwind attack. It's a move from the Strong Fist Style."

"Yeah," he answered softly.

"You didn't know that taijutsu style the last time we fought, in fact I would guess you didn't know it when you left Konoha."

Naruto chuckled, "A lot of things have changed about me."

**Next Chapter – Naruto's Fist**

* * *

_Author's Note: A little bit of a cliffhanger. I've got the next chapter partially written, actually it was originally part of this chapter, but I decided it all flowed better in smaller parts. _

_This chapter really gives some more detail to the events of the first chapter. It covers Naruto leaving, Sakura's promise, and a little bit more about how Sakura learned to heal Naruto._

_Next chapter, Naruto and Sasuke have a taijutsu only fight, while Sasuke and Sakura learn that Naruto has learned taijutsu in the last three years, but the question is, who taught him and why?_

* * *

Version 1.0 

1.0: Original


	3. Naruto's Fist

**One Eye for Knowledge**

A/N: This story will continue with a Sakura-centric third person point of view, but flashbacks will be either from Sakura's point of view or from someone else's if they are "telling" that part of the story to Sakura. That way I can sneak in some events that Sakura wasn't witness to.

* * *

**Chapter Three – Naruto's Fist**

_Ever occasionally, Sakura saw an Anbu in the corner of her eye. The white masked, cloaked in black figures made a haunting image as they stealthily moved around, but she knew she should have expected it when training with Sasuke. _

_She didn't know if they hid to keep out of the way or more likely to strike at Sasuke suddenly and secretly if he choose to make an attempt to escape, which she knew he wouldn't. Yet, despite their ghostly presence she managed to concentrate on her training. _

_Sasuke had been surprised when she revealed Kakashi's Sharingan; it was still too soon to call it hers. However, he seemed to take the opportunity to train her seriously, too seriously than she cared for, but she knew part of his training style was based partly on how his Sannin master trained him. _

_While Sasuke spoke little of it, she knew Sasuke's training often consisted of Orochimaru attacking with jutsu for him to copy with his Sharingan and his other abilities increased as he tried to avoid or counter those jutsu. However, the attacks were deadly serious with Kabuto often having to heal Sasuke after he came close to the point of death. _

_It was a brutal way of becoming stronger and lacked all of the closeness she cherished with her own master, but she also knew had incredible effects on how strong Sasuke was. _

_"You're too slow." _

_Sakura looked at Sasuke with frustration, her head was already aching from the strange double vision created by the Sharingan. She had already learned the quickest way to end the biggest of her headache was to close her real eye, but she still saw confusing ghostly images of Sasuke whenever he moved. _

"_I'm moving as fast as I can!" _

_"I'm not talking about how fast your legs can move," he told her. "Kakashi's eye has three tomoe. You should be seeing the image of my next move from the slightest muscle tension of my body. This allows you to synchronize your movement to strike at an area moments before I am even at that spot, essentially allowing you to strike out and hit me before I'm even there."_

_Sakura concentrated as he lectured her as she was back in school. It did explain her double vision and she realized that it was more useful than that, "Or avoid you." _

_"It is better to attack you opponent sooner than avoid them forever." _

_"No," she told him with confidence. "For a medical ninja attacking comes second because they should never be hit by the enemy's attacks. When they face an opponent's attack, evasion is the first priority. They have to treat their team members, so they can't allow themselves to die."_

_He smirked as he looked at her in an arrogant way that she didn't like. "Fine then, try to avoid my attacks for as long as you can. I'll go easy on you by not using my Sharingan."_

_She gave him her own determined glare, while hoping that Kakashi's Sharingan still looked impressive underneath her long eyelashes. _

_Sasuke didn't waste any time as he launched himself toward her. She remembered his words and concentrated on the ghostly images the Sharingan gave her instead of the real Sasuke. Before the image reached her, she nimbly dodged out of the way. _

_The process repeated itself several times before she got the hang of it and it wasn't before long it seemed like she was dancing gracefully away from every combination of punches and kicks that Sasuke could make. The dance continued almost effortlessly to the point that she laughed in enjoyment. _

_Suddenly Sasuke disappeared from her vision, the beforeimage and the real one as well. She didn't even have time to turn her head in confusion before feeling a hard thump to her side that that sent her falling to the ground. _

_Before she could even realize what had struck her, three Anbu were suddenly beside her with their black robes swaying from their instant movement across the training area. _

_An Anbu with a cat mask spoke with a feminine voice despite an ambiguous figure under the Anbu's robe. "That's enough, don't you think that was a little harsh?"_

_Sasuke crossed his arms and looked at his Anbu guards with irritation. "She got too confident and forgot with one eye closed she left a blind spot. As it is, I was being soft on her by attacking so slow. She wouldn't have been having fun if I really attacked her."_

_Sakura felt herself being helped up by a pair of arms. "I'm alright. He's right. I should have taken the training more seriously if I want to master this eye."_

_The Anbu looked less than convinced if their stony, silent stance was a sign of their mood. Sakura had to wonder if they had extra orders from Tsunade to protect her. _

_Yet, she was frozen by Sasuke's look of frustration and questioning. _

_"Why do you want to master the Sharingan so bad? Naruto left yesterday and yet you are here, wanting to be trained. Do you want to take Kakashi-sensei's nickname so badly?"_

_"No," she told him, although she was slightly amused at the thought of calling herself Copy Ninja Sakura. "I want to train because of Naruto. I want to make this eye useful so I can help him. I made a promise of a lifetime to heal him so he can be a ninja again." _

_"That was a stupid promise."_

_"He gave me one like it three years ago. He promised to bring you back and he did."_

_Sasuke looked away and the smug arrogance melted away for a moment. For a moment, the former avenger looked like a vulnerable boy again. _

_"Naruto would have done anything to bring you back…he pretty much did," she said sadly as she reached up and touched where she had the First's necklace hidden underneath her sleeveless top. "Like him, I'm not going to give up no matter how long it takes!"_

_They were both silent a while and even the Anbu appeared to relax. _

_"SASUKE! SAKURA! NARUTO!"_

_Everyone turned in surprise to see Maito Gai enter the training area. _

_He was drunk…very drunk by his appearance as he swaggered into the training area in an nearly unbalanced walk, with red eyes, and a bottle of sake dangling from his fingers. He blinked a few times as if seeing through a haze, before recognizing them, "There you are."_

_The cat masked Anbu walked toward Gai and lifted a hand, "Gai-san, this is a private training period. I have to ask you to leave or we'll escort you out."_

_"Who are you to order me around?" he asked in drunken obnoxious manner. _

_Gai tripped and the cat masked Anbu rushed forward to catch him, but he rolled out of the way and started to twirl quickly in a circle on one foot in a comical attempt to regain his balance. Yet, as harmless the move was, his other leg raised high in the air and smashed his foot on the back of the Anbu's neck in a drunken version of a roundhouse kick. _

_The other two Anbu quickly rushed forward when their cat masked companion fell to the ground unconscious. Neither wished to harm the Jounin, but perhaps if they had known Maito Gai better they would have never gotten in taijutsu range of him. _

_In another intoxicated move, Gai seemed to fall backwards just as they reached him. His hand lashed out as if to maintain his balance, only to punch one Anbu unexpectedly in the face, and one his legs kicked out high in the air, which caught the other Anbu by the chin and sending him flying in the air before falling with a thud. _

_"What is this? They're suppose to watch over me, but they can't take care of one drunk?" asked Sasuke in disgust. "This is pathetic, even for Anbu."_

_"No," Sakura told him sternly, "He's using the Drunken Fist Style. Lee-san is a master at it, but apparently, Gai-sensei can use it too. Of course, it helps if you are really drunk." _

_She turned and saw that Sasuke had activated his own Sharingan. Watching drunken movements was one thing, but the fact it was a taijutsu style gathered his interest. _

_"What do you want here, Gai-sensei" Sasuke walked toward Gai calmly despite what he had just saw, but with the Sharingan activated, Sakura thought there was no real danger. _

_"I'm looking for Kakashi's spirit," he slurred. _

_"What!" yelled Sakura at the insanity of his words. She hadn't thought about how Gai might take the death of his eternal rival, but even this was beyond imagination. "Kakashi-sensei is dead, why would his soul be still in Konoha?"_

_"Not his soul!" yelled Gai as he made a fist overdramatically and looked up the sky with tears in his eyes, "HIS SPIRIT!"_

_Sasuke looked back to her, "Don't even try Sakura. He's clearly so drunk he's out of his mind…more than usual."_

_"Shut up, you freak!" yelled Gai. "The spirit of a teacher lives on in his students, to carry on his will, his strength, and his determination. For me that person is Lee, but one of you must have Kakashi's spirit!" _

_"Fine then," said Sasuke smugly as he flexed his fingers in a fist. "I have Sharingan and I'm a genius like Kakashi. I also have the first technique Kakashi every created. If you want to fight Kakashi's spirit, then fight me."_

_Sasuke rushed toward him as if he had with Sakura, but Gai stared at him with a silly grin while swaying back and forth, as he tried to walk, but made a clumsy taijutsu stance. However, one hand held the sake bottle while the other was in the shape to hold a cup. _

_When Sasuke reached him, he started out with a punch, but in a fluid motion with his free hand, Gai blocked and trapped Sasuke's arm. Undeterred, Sasuke twisted until he could make a high kick aimed for Gai's face, but Gai clumsily leaned backward and rearranged his feet to regain his balance, only to step on Sasuke's toes. The pain was distracting enough that when Gai leaned forward to regain his balance and let go of his arm, it forced him to loose his balance and fall to the ground. _

_"You are not as cool as Kakashi," muttered Gai as walked toward Sakura. _

_"Damn it!" cursed Sasuke. "Be careful Sakura! My Sharingan didn't see him in time!"_

_Sakura watched Gai carefully, her mind busy on determining why the Sharingan failed. "You said the Sharingan predicts the move based on muscle tension, but the alcohol helps loosen the body's muscles, allowing him to fight with unpredictable and unstructured moves." _

_Sasuke nodded in understanding as he watched Gai standing before Sakura. _

_"Gai-sensei, I have Kakashi's eye. Do you think I have his spirit?"_

_"Hmm…your cute." Gai suddenly leaned forward with his lips puckered comically. _

_"Eh!" squealed Sakura as she leaned back in surprise away from the offensive lips, but Gai grabbed an arm. She could have done many things such as push him away, but she refrained from punching him…instead she threw him…toward the wall of the training area. _

_"HELL NO!" she screamed as she channeled her inner self. _

_"You are not as cute as Kakashi," said Gai stubbornly from the awkward position where he had landed against and partially through the wall. As it was, he was upside down and his feet were higher than his head. _

_"WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN!"_

_"Where's Naruto?" he asked. _

_"W-What?" Sakura instantly calmed down at the mention of Naruto's name. _

_"Neither of you have Kakashi's spirit," said Gai as he managed to straighten himself up and sit back down on the pile of rubble. The sake bottle that was in his hand was now a broken wet mess. The fact he hadn't suffered the same fate spoke for his durability as a ninja. "I have to see Naruto."_

_"Naruto's gone," said Sasuke as he walked up to Gai. "He left yesterday."_

_"When will he back," asked Gai in misunderstanding. _

_"He won't."_

_"Sasuke—"_

_He ignored her and continued, "Naruto can't be a ninja anymore because he can't mold chakra. The Hokage herself sent him away." _

_"He could be a taijutsu specialist," argued Gai. "He's only slightly worse off than Lee." _

_"I thought the same, but Tsunade didn't think he had the ability—"_

_"The Hokage is wise in many things, but a medical-nin should stick to training other medical-nin. Only a taijutsu master can decide who can or can't master taijutsu."_

* * *

Sakura frowned as she realized once again they were ignoring her as they fought, just like the first time on the hospital rooftop, and it wasn't a pleasant reminder of how things were. Yet she knew one thing, she wasn't going to cry for them if they hurt each other. 

This time they fought in a storage area behind the inn and surrounded by boxes and barrels filled with supplies. One box had already been smashed, leaving white flour on the floor, in the air, and on Sasuke's black clothes.

"A lot of things have changed about me."

She looked at Naruto and wonder if that was true. He looked at Sasuke with serious eyes, but an excited smile almost as if she were watching him from three years ago. While he often appeared untalented, there was something about him that amazed her when he fought. The only thing different was the puckered scars on his cheeks that weren't quite the same as the whisker lines they replaced.

"Perhaps," said Sasuke. "But don't think that because you suddenly know a real taijutsu that this fight is over!" Sasuke took off running toward Naruto, but then he jumped and spun at a ferocious speed. "Piercing Fang!"

Naruto didn't have time to dodge as the beast-like attack hit him, sending him flying against barrels behind him, resulting in another loud crash.

"That's Kiba's jutsu!" yelled Naruto as he managed to pick himself back up. He frowned at Sasuke, showing signs of the brat Sakura remembered, "Your cheating!"

Sasuke smirked, "I only agreed to use taijutsu and to not _activate_ my Sharingan. Piercing Fang is the Inuzuka clan's secret taijutsu that I copied years ago. So it's fair game."

Naruto practically growled in frustration, which made Sakura want to laugh at how her _boys_ had fallen back to their old behavior as if nothing happened.

"Fine, then don't expect me to hold back! I'm stronger than you think!"

"Hold on, Naruto!"

"Huh?"

Sakura also blinked in surprise as Sasuke paused their fight himself, but when she saw him reach into his pocket, she knew what he was up to.

"Put this on," he said as drew out Naruto's old black forehead protector and threw it towards him, but Naruto only blinked in surprise as if he had no idea what to do with it.

"What are you doing! Are you making fun of me!"

"No! I'm saying this is a symbol," said Sasuke calmly as he repeated Naruto's words from three years ago. He pulled out his own forehead protector and tied it around his head. "That we fight as equal Konoha ninja!"

"Enough with the joke!" he yelled as he threw the forehead protector back before running toward Sasuke yelling in anger. "I'm not a ninja! So leave me alone!"

Sasuke ran toward him as well ready to attack him first, "Stop being an idiot!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!"

Sakura moved between them lightening fast with the help of the perfect amount of chakra moved to her feet, grabbed one of their wrists in each hand, and then spun them around before letting go, sending them flying into the boxes and barrels.

"If you want to keep fighting, I'll join in," she told them as she made a fist. Sakura could tell by their nervous faces that they knew she wouldn't hold back her super strength. "I'm assuming your silence means this fight is ended, but I want to know who started this?"

"Sasuke!"

"Naruto!"

She rolled her eyes at their simultaneous accusations. At eighteen years old, they were both acted they were twelve again. She turned to Sasuke, knowing he was least likely to exaggerate the truth.

"He was trying to escape."

"W-What?" She turned back to Naruto, but the look of shame on his face confirmed what Sasuke said. "You were trying to leave?"  
"I'm not going back to Konoha," he told her softly.

"So you were just going to leave, without even telling us! You were going to sneak off!" she yelled at him. "You couldn't even wait till morning!"

"I had a bad dream okay!"

Sakura blinked at him in surprise over such an odd response.

"I've had a recurring bad dream for three years and I had again last night. There is no way I'm going back to Konoha so it can come true!"

She took a breath to calm herself, knowing yelling at him wasn't getting anywhere. Therefore, she walked over to Naruto, and sat down on a box next to Naruto and the pile of broken boxes he sat on. "I'm sure its not that bad…it's a dream right? What is it about?"

"Well, you see…it starts out with me being back in the Academy…"

* * *

_The bell ran for several seconds before finally fading away. _

_"I'm late!" yelled Naruto as he ran through the endless hallway, while ignoring the blank looks of everyone that he passed. He simply didn't have the time to be questioned. He only knew that he was late, but he couldn't remember why. _

_There was an old familiarity of the hallway, he had walked and sometimes ran through them hundreds of times and perhaps even thousands. They hadn't changed at all, as if burned in his childhood memory, but now the once familiar hallway was all a blur as his body seemed to race through it without him remembering to even move his feet. _

_He almost crashed into the doorway as he reached his destination. He slid the door aside, stepped in, and tried to speak despite being short of breath, but found he couldn't. _

_"YOU'RE LATE, NARUTO!"_

_"I'm sorry Iruka-sensei, I must have overslept or something," he blurted. _

_Iruka looked at him with a serious expression that was missing the kindness that Naruto had become familiar with, it was not the expression of the man Naruto considered to be like a father, but of the teacher he thought hated him. "Save your excuses Naruto and take your seat." _

_"O-Okay," he said softly in his confusion as he turned to the other students in the room, but his eyes opened wide as his body froze, "Hey, wait a minute!"_

_"What is it now?"_

_"They're kids!" yelled Naruto as he pointed to a classroom filled with a variety of eight year olds looking at him with expressions of boredom. "I must not be in the right class!"_

_Iruka rolled his eyes and lectured him, "If you want to become a ninja again you must start at the beginning."_

_"But I'm eighteen—"_

_"Stop wasting my time!" yelled Iruka with anger in his voice. Naruto hadn't heard him this mad since he painted the Hokage monument years ago. "Unlike you, some of these children have the potential to become great ninja…even Hokage. If you don't want to follow the rules then you'll have to leave Konoha again!" _

_"B-But—"_

_Iruka only sighed in frustration, "Since you've disrupted my class, why don't you demonstrate the Transformation Jutsu? Move closer to the front so everyone can see."_

_"But—"_

_"Do it!" _

_Naruto moved closer to the front of the room. Every one of the eight year old kids had their eyes on him, which only served to make him more nervous. _

_"Transformation Jutsu," he announced as he made a hand seal and concentrated._

_Nothing…_

_There was a scattered amount of giggles and laughter. Shame and anger began to burn inside him as he gritted his teeth. Even eight year old kids thought he sucked…_

_"NARUTO!" yelled Iruka. _

_"I'm trying!" he yelled. "TRANSFORMATION JUTSU!"_

_There was a huge explosion of smoke and he finally felt relieved that it worked…until he heard laughter…lots of it. Everyone in the class, even Iruka-sensei, was laughing and it wasn't just laughter, it was side splitting laugh-until-it-hurts laughter. _

_His first thought was he had screwed up the technique and transformed into the long nose, fat lipped version of the Third Hokage, just like the old days, but then he noticed his sudden lack of clothing, which normally he was used to that for the Sexy Jutsu. However, in this case he hadn't changed gender at all. He was still male and very naked…_

_"AH, I DON"T WANT TO GO BACK TO THE ACADEMY!" he screamed as he made a failed attempt to cover up before the dream faded away. _

* * *

Sakura couldn't help it. She laughed…she laughed so hard she had to wrap her arms around her sides while resting her head on an unhappy Naruto's shoulder to keep her from falling and rolling on the ground in amusement. 

"Naked?" she giggled as she tried to control herself. She looked over to Sasuke and saw that even he was trying to conceal a barely restrained ear-to-ear grin.

"It's not that funny!" protested Naruto.

"Yes it is, especially coming from someone who would transform into a naked, very developed member of the opposite sex. You had no problem about nudity then."

"It wasn't exactly my own," he grumbled.

"No, I guess not," she agreed while whipping the tears from her eyes. "But you won't have any worries about returning to Konoha."

"Yeah, right. You can't be sure of that."

"Naruto!" Sakura pointed a finger at him accusingly. "You've forgotten haven't you!"

"F-Forgot what?" he asked nervously as he leaned away from her glare.

"My promise!"

"W-What promise?"

"My promise of a lifetime!"

"T-That?" he yelled in surprise. He looked at her as if he never believed it was possible, but there was something in his eyes like hope. "You mean you've actually think you can heal me?"

"Of course. I already have, silly. While you were sleeping, you should be able to mold chakra like anyone now."

Naruto made a fist and opened it as he stared down at it. She wasn't sure what he was doing until she saw the miniature storm of chakra grow in his palm. It wasn't complete, after all it was years since he had the ability to truely mold chakra, but was much more than he had ever been able to do in three years of trying to mold at least the tiniest bit of chakra through his crippled inner coil system.

"Thank you, Sakura-chan!" he managed choke past tears, probably the first tears he had ever cried in many years. She placed hand on his shoulder and gave him a warm smile.

"You're welcome."

**Next Chapter – Sasuke's Paper Fan**

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_Author's Note: In the first scene, Sasuke may have seemed a little bit like a jerk, but it was only a short time at that point that he was Orochimaru's apprentice. Don't worry, Sasuke will have his good moments in this fic too. _

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Version 1.0 

1.0: Original


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